GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GTX 460 1GB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 460 1GB, which has a clock speed of 675 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 336 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 85 Watts (113%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB should theoretically perform a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GTS in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 83200 (260%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB should be a lot (more or less 250%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 27000 (250%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 1GB is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 16200 (300%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.